Oral History Interview Summary about Jesse F. Stovall, Jr. Page: 1 of 1
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*. s. MsAn c e gs
V VETERAN: JESSE F. STOVALL, JR.
HIGHEST RANK/GRADE: CORPORAL
INTERVIEWED BY: ROB SORENSON
Mr. Stovall, known to his friends as Jess, was a Marine that served from June of 1944 to March of 1947, serving
mostly in the Pacific. The only action Mr. Stoval saw was in Okinawa, but stated that it was mostly "clean up."
Mr. Stovall was just out of high school at the age of 17. He tried to get a job at Humble (Exxon) Refinery but
was told that he had to be 18. He was really unsure what he was going to do until one day when he was watching
the movie "Pride of the Marines" with a friend and suddenly got the idea to join. When he told his friend of the
idea, he said, "you must be realy desperate." The next Saturday, May 26, 1944, Mr. Stovall and his father drove
from their home in Hearne to Houston to sign up.
After getting signed up, Mr. Stovall went to Camp Pendleton in June, where he trained. He stayed there
longer than usual because of the mothers of soldiers who were so young having a protest. The government let
all of that die down before they were moved. He went to Pearl Harbor, Guam, and Okinawa. After serving in
Okinawa he boarded the USS Wichita where he served as an admiral's orderly (body guard).
Mr. Stovall stated that his training for all of this wasn't very intense because it all happend so quick; he
described it as "hands on experience." He served in the infantry and that type of division didn't require much
training.
He visited the Marine training camp recently and the equipment was far superior to the equipment used in
the 40s. Stovall wasn't complaining about the equipment, but said it was the best around for that period and it
did get the job done.
The leadership he had was great ... even it it had not been, he couldn't have complained ... but overall it was
very good. His captains were only a few years older than him and really were not very hard on the men. They
all knew what they were there for, plus all of them were volunteers, so they all wanted to be there. They were
like a big family.
The Marines didn't get much recreation time. When they did, it was about thirty minutes of basketball from
around 4:30 to 5:00. This didn't bother him because he wasn't there to play--he was there to serve his country.
The military wasn't integrated in the 40s. It was an Anglo-Saxon force only. The blacks were separate forces
all together and the Mexicans were usually the cooks.
The only other branch of the service his unitworked with was the Navy, their sister service. They were housed
together on the cruiser and the only time they really did anything together was during vacation time. The Marines
were the guards on the ship and the Navy were the gunners.
When asked about the quality of being informed about something that was going on, Stovall said he felt the
public knew more than he did. He didn't hear about the Atomic Bomb until it had been dropped, but felt the bomb
was necessary because if it hadn't been dropped, he probably wouldn't be here today.
The only awards Mr. Stovall received during the war were six ribbons. He said they weren't that important
because he really doesn't know what they stand for. He has no idea where they are today.
After he returned from the war in July of 1946, the welcome home was GREAT. He said you would have had
to be there to experience the feeling-it can't really be described ... the first sight of the American flag on shore,
the first taste of American food (he drank milk for the first time when he got back, and said it was the best tasting
stuff he had ever had).50th Anniversary
197
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Sorenson, Rob. Oral History Interview Summary about Jesse F. Stovall, Jr., text, Date Unknown; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth884738/m1/1/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lee College.